


Journeys of Ravenloss

by likestoimagine



Series: The Tales of Lore [2]
Category: DragonFable
Genre: Drowning, Gen, Hope and Despair, Rebirth
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-03
Updated: 2015-08-24
Packaged: 2018-02-11 13:05:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2069331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/likestoimagine/pseuds/likestoimagine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In an underground city, the streets grow bright in the light of lives and stories.</p>
<p>Or, tales of the inhabitants of Ravenloss</p>
<p>(Chapter 7 - Aspen panics. Dora panics. Tomix panics. But in the end, everything's fine.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. From the End, a New Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aegis dies. Its not quite the end.

Aegis drowns. That’s the end of his story.

 

Except, he sees wisps of cyan blue thread balloon up through the inky chill and coalesce into a long-limbed, fluorescent spirit. Not so much the end, after all. 

 

oOoOo

 

Aegis wakes up to a buoyant weightlessness, strange in the way that it feels completely natural. Without opening his eyes, he can tell that he is in the Plane of Elemental Spirits, a place he’s only ever seen once before when he first bonded with Aesyle, Water spirit of Protection. Its actually nothing like he remembers. 

 

The land was smudged and muffled the first time he came, more like a living drawing of charcoal highlighted by color than an actual, tangible landscape. It had been stunning, in a foreign sort of way, but it was clear to Aegis that he was missing something.

 

Now, the Plane is glowing and vibrant, snow-glare bright without hurting his eyes in the least. Bright pinks and sunny yellows that were once faded smears to him are vivid threads woven throughout the Elemental Plains, while a rainbow of blues dances in ether breezes and glimmer with magic energy. Aegis breathes deeply and tastes the tang of violet in the air, sits up and sifts his hands through tingling viridian sands. The scent of sunset wafts past, and he traces the sweet fiery smell back to a cluster of small orange flowers nestled in a low hanging cloud bank.

 

Taking in the beautiful landscape make Aegis feel fluffy and light like snowflakes on the wind. He doesn’t so much stand up as he does _bounce_ as he tries to take in everything, tangles his hands through shining gossamer to taste and smell and feel the world around him. 

 

The life of this land diffuses through the air - the glow of the soil seeps to the sky, the glow of the sky to the flowers, the glow of the flowers to the clouds. Each object, though clearly its own color, has a rainbow of shadows dancing at its edge.

 

“You’ve finally woken.”

 

Aegis turns to the soft voice that addresses him. He sees a willowy spirit-girl with a teardrop _A_ emblazoned on her forehead, glimmering sea-green amidst effervescent threads. Her aura is contained, pure without prismatic shadows and no less stunning for it.

 

“Aesyle!” Aegis exclaims, bounding up to grasp at her cool, large hands. “You’re here!”

 

Laughter bubbles from her throat, splashing warm green through the atmospheric thread  and stirring her bobbed hair. “Yes, I am. I do live here, after all.”

 

“Is the plane always this amazing, Sy?” Aegis asks, still holding his partner’s hands as he spins around, pulling her along with him. “And why did it not look like this before?”

 

Aesyle slows down the playful twirl, bringing Aegis to a halt as well so that she can raise his gloved hands into clear sight. Aegis looks at their hands, registering for the first time that his are glowing bright blue-white against her own aquamarine fingers. As he digests the information, Aesyle answers, “You’re a spirit now, silly. Spirits see the world differently from physical creatures.” 

 

The sea-green elemental stills as Aegis processes this, leaving only her sleeveless summer dress and her short hair to sway in the currents of the ether. She waits as the other spirit takes his cursory glance up his cyan arm to his bare chest, where a hooked _H_ insignia glows back at him. Extracting his hand from Aesyle’s grasp, Aegis touches a questioning hand to the mark, only to pull it away as it burns cold and shines. A glowing sphere forms from the motes of light emanating from Aegis, collecting in his hand and merging into a carbon copy of the sign on his chest. 

 

Aegis stares bemused at the new charm dangling from his left wrist, and all he says is, “Huh. I did not know that would happen. And does this mean that I'm dead?”

 

Aesyle shifts her gaze up from the newly-formed pendant back up to Aegis’s blue face. “In a way,” she answers, “You did die, but its not truly death just yet.”

 

The blank stare that she receives for her statement is all she needs to continue, “It does take some getting used to, but you could say that you are not quite done with life yet, so you spend more time here before you finally go."

 

“Oh… This spirit stuff is quite confusing, Sy.” Aegis groans. “Is there more that I don’t know? How will I learn all of this?”

 

Aesyle beams at him. “I’m glad you asked, Aegis!” She spins around, stirring up minty droplets of water from her hair.

 

“First lesson, Aegis! The final act of a SoulAlly is to introduce their weaver to the Elemental Plane. After that, I become your Spirit Guide instead.”

 

A chill-blue elbow links through Aesyle’s mint-green arm, and Aegis grins cheekily, “I get my own tour guide? That's just fantastic!”

 

“Oh, I’ll be the best tour guide you’ve ever even dreamed of.” She exclaims, shoving at him playfully with her free hand. As she pulls him off towards her flawlessly clear aquamarine lake, she starts, “Anyways, each spirit in the Plain eventually finds their own domain, kind of like a person’s home back in the physical world. You can usually tell them apart when they’re inhabited because the land will take on the character of its spirit. Its really rare, but sometimes the domain needs to be locked off, like with Pandora…”

 

Aegis listens to his guide explain the ways of this new, bright world to him as they walk towards the lake and the future. This is the beginning of his story.


	2. A Lantern by His Side

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tomix may be walking a path draped in darkness, but there is still a light by his side.

Tomix has many dreams for the future, fleeting things he tries hold on to even if they’re not going to come true. He thinks of peace, and lazy days, and joy and comfort and love, but his life has been a series of tragedy, of his deepest wishes slipping through his fingers like rain from the black sky (it doesn’t matter if his hands are solid or intangible, the result is always the same). He grabs at the possibilities for the future, but all he has is the dry touch of smoke, or the last clinging teardrops that are only a pale taste of what he craves (he’ll never give up, not until he’s finally obtained joy or has died trying, and death is the more likely). 

 

Emma, the hero ( _his_ hero, he thinks to himself in his sappier moments), has proven the only exception, even in the face of the impossible. Aspar is a traitor, Riadne drifts away (its for the best, which is almost worse), and Emma finds herself frozen by a powerful magician made insane by isolation, yet Emma is the one who comes back after ten years with a guileless smile and light, vibrant energy. 

 

He can’t help but love her for that. Even beyond her never-ending optimism and light-hearted teasing and her heart filled with empathic grace, Emma has always been the lantern to keep Tomix’s hope alight through the torrent of despair. This is why Tomix tells only his hero of his dream, which can only exist in the scope of his mind but gives him the drive to face the bleak future nonetheless. He imagines that he'd graduate, travel, fall in love and have a family and a small shop out of the way. Tomix would be surrounded by friends and family instead of disaster and pain.

 

(He never does tells her that just once, he imagined that life with Emma by his side.)

 

Tomix had brushed that thought aside quickly enough when it came. He wants Emma to be a part of his life, always, that is true. But. She’s his best friend and comrade-in-arms, and though she’s now thirteen years younger than he, Tomix sometimes imagines her as sort of an older sister who he can count on and trust with everything. So, he loves her, but never in a romantic way.

 

In the end though, Emma’s still the closest person that Tomix has got, closer than blood and understanding him in a way that his family has never managed. (She knows why he has to move forwards, why he has to push himself even if he breaks, and joins in so that she can maybe prevent him from shattering even if its only a little)

 

If he’s going to die rectifying the mistake he made unleashing evil to the world, then Tomix would love nothing more than to have Emma by his side to the end.


	3. Ignorance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are some things that Aegis just doesn't want to know.

It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes Aegis dreams of his life before. (More specifically, of when his life before _ended_ ). He starts awake with a strangled gasp for sweet air and clutches blindly at the charm dangling from his wrist before chilling darkness fades from his sight, leaving only the snowy glow of ether in its wake. 

 

Technically, Aegis doesn’t actually feel cold anymore. That doesn’t change the shivers that spasm through Aegis’s ethereal body. 

 

In the beginning, he thinks that he’s misunderstood something. That the haze of panic and death closing in on his ice cold body has distorted his perception of events, painted in malice that isn’t supposed to be there. Aegis doesn’t want to believe that anyone, let alone one of his classmates and comrades, could push him under diamond ice with nothing but gleaming-green maniacal eyes. There has to be another explanation.

 

His memories come back in slow, slow drops of of ink-dark molasses, and the argument for his classmate’s innocence drips away in a matching tattoo.

 

Because the thing is: Aegis has always been the type of person to save people - it’s how he became a spirit in the first place, and why he’s a spirit of Valor. Aegis loves people, so he protects them _and_ goes a step further, caring about their emotional well-being as well. Meaning that many of the techniques he’s mastered over months of learning are tied into protecting _and_ reassuring.

 

His favorite calming technique has always been Cloak. Woven with tranquil threads and serenity in mind, the phantom garment was sure to soothe the wearer and clear their mind of immobilizing fear - perfect for civilian victims who need a clear head to get to safety and for soldiers lost to battle paralysis. Not only was this art easier to perform in a pinch (a square of cloth is much less of a challenge to weave than a stunning sword, any day), but it was also useful in almost all situations and always effective since no one ever tried to resist.

 

All of this together meant that Aegis quickly mastered the art, to the point where it became second nature for him to weave the shimmering mantle whenever he ran towards trouble and the people who needed to be saved from it. 

 

He had woven the same cloak for his classmate all those years ago. So, his killer had to have a reason beyond panic in mind when he decided to drown Aegis. 

 

Aegis never wants to find out what that reason is. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And yes, I am implying that Envy/Aspar may or may not have influenced the drowning thing. Maybe.


	4. Prank

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Because sometimes even you love your family (read: brother), they're still the most annoying thing ever.

“You know, your brother probably misses you.”

 

Tomix, around fourteen years younger than expected but otherwise better than ever (what with having hands, and the ability to eat and sleep, and small things like his original hair color and everything), opens a disbelieving eye at his best friend so that he can properly convey just how ridiculous he finds that statement with nothing more than his piercing gold stare. 

 

“You can’t possibly mean Danyel,” he deadpans. 

 

Emma nods cheerfully from her perch on the edge of the verdant Oaklore cliffside and exclaims, “Yup. The very one!”

 

“The stick-in-the-mud headmaster who had us cleaning hallways and sewers in the school before he would help us in our _very important quest to prevent the world from being consumed by the void_. Solely to humiliate me. That brother?!”

 

“Exactly.” She’s still smiling. Tomix does not understand why she’s smiling - she’s talking about his older brother of all people.

 

So, he explains as much when he comments, “I don’t get you.”

 

Emma shrugs, and leans back on her elbows so that she can stare at the sky. “He made me promise to take care of you before we left.”

 

The hero pauses, eyes darkening as she remembers an epitaph by sunset, and the accusatory, heartbroken words that spill out of the elder brother’s mouth - words meant to hurt her as much as he was hurting (even if she never needed the reminder).

 

Closing her eyes against the bright sun, she murmurs, “He wasn’t too happy when I couldn’t keep it.” Emma turns back to glance at Tomix and suggests, “He cares about you. You should at least think about visiting him.”

 

The Soul-Weaver pauses for a second, then replies, “Nah. He’s still a jerk. And if I know him at all, he blamed you for what happened even though he did absolutely nothing that gives him any right to comment.”

 

Emma’s silence speaks volumes to Tomix, so he settles on his back and rests his head on folded arms. Still… Danyel is (regretfully) his brother, and he apparently cares enough to (kind of) talk about him in a (probably) less derogatory tone. So Tomix should probably talk to the jerk at least a little, pop in for a second and confirm for the guy that he's alive or something. Though...

 

"Fine," he replies, "But I only have to talk to him this once. And only if we get to do it on my terms..."

 

oOoOo

 

Danyel walks into his office to find the place completely swamped in glitter. Everything, from his fountain pens to the drapes to the carpet, are coated in the staticky foil. It comes in all colors, too - purple predominantly, but also silver, and blue, and gold… and neon colors he wasn't even aware came in glitter form. Also, all of his stationery has been replaced by some paisley print monstrosity that clashes impressively with the shimmery ink that has replaced all the normal ink in his office. A large shape in the corner of his eye makes the headmaster dread turning around.

 

Sure enough, there's a sequined (life-sized) stuffed Chicken-Cow sitting where his couch used to be, and as Danyel finds out later when his students are laughing at him down the hall, his chair had been sprayed with wet paint in the exact color of the upholstery. So he has the unflattering impression of a burgundy chair on the back of his robes to accompany the massive amounts of glitter that suspiciously gravitate to his robes.

 

To tie it all in a neat, taunting bow, since the mess in question is centered around his office and desk, Danyel can't just foist the cleaning job off onto one of his students or the janitor or something, (with all the important documents there, it would be a terrible idea to foist the job off onto an average Joe, though the idea is becoming more and more tempting), so he has to tackle the job himself.

 

The headmaster thinks that there will be hell to pay, and the scowl marring his face at the thought only softens slightly (like, a fraction of a fraction) when he sees the perpetrators flanking either side of his door.

 

His insufferable little(er) brother smirks at him and snaps his fingers, which somehow opens up a compartment in the stuffed Chicken-Cow that spills popcorn all over his office, complete with a little plush holding a sign that reads, ‘Still Alive!’. The hero accompanying him is too busy laughing so hard she’s near covered in glitter to offer a coherent explanation

 

Danyel’s irritation comes back in full force. 

 

oOoOo

 

"I'm only going to talk to my brother if I can prank the ever-loving life out of him first. We deserve that much, for all the grief he gave us with those stupid chores. And for all the grief he's given me for the past twenty-nine years of my life."

 

"Hmm, he'll probably be _really_ annoyed at us if we do that... What'cha got?"

 


	5. Storytime

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tomix tells a story to his kids. It's a tale thats close to all of their hearts.

_“Would you tell us a story, Dad?”_

 

_“You want a story? Which one?”_

 

_“Tell us a new one, Daddy. Make one up.”_

 

_“Make one up… hmm. How about… a tale of Woe, a tale of Envy, and a tale of Pride?_

 

oOoOo

 

When Tomix’s first child is born, the first person he thinks to tell is not his mother, not his sister, not Riadne nor Izaac. The first person he wants to tell is Emma, his best friend and sister-by-choice.

 

Luckily, he gets the chance easily enough, as Emma makes it a point to visit when she can. It’s only a week after his daughter graces the family with her adorable presence when the Hero of Lore knocks on his door, answering the squeaking hinges with a, “So, how are things with the pregnancy?”

 

Tomix replies with a massive hug, squishing the breath out of Emma and spinning her around once before finally letting her go. He’s still grinning exuberant when she’s released and laughing too much to be of much use, so Emma continues, “I take it everything went well?”

 

Instead of answering, the excited red-head grabs Emma’s hands and drags her inside, chattering all the while. 

 

“You have to see, Dora’s the most adorable thing in the world. Hurry up!” Tomix is bouncing like an over-excited puppy, but he still manages to quietly open the door to the bedroom where his wife and daughter are resting. 

 

Both Weaver and Mage enter the room, and Tomix gives his wife a quick peck on the cheek and a “Hey, love” before directing his attention to the little bundle thats sitting on her lap. 

 

He pokes the little baby’s cheeks carefully and coos, “Hey, Daddy’s back, and he brought your Auntie Emma with him. She’s your godmother, isn’t that great?” as if he actually expects her to understand.

 

Dora opens her eyes, and gazes up to the figure that is apparently her new aunt with vibrant saffron eyes.

 

oOoOo

 

_“Once, there was a beautiful and powerful woman who was not happy because she was the loneliest person in the world. She traveled the land and hurt people because she wanted other people to hurt in the same way she did, but it never made her feel better.”_

 

_“She sounds sad… and foolish”_

 

_“Well, this is the tale of Woe. But, the woman did learn. She met a man who saw past the beauty and the power and the danger she wore like a cloak, and saw instead the loneliness eating away at her. In turn, she saw the love and compassion in his heart and learned that from him. The two eventually married, and were happy for a time, though they couldn’t start a family.”_

 

_“What happened?”_

 

_“He died, and the woman was heart-broken. She was so lonely that she became reckless, and tried to make herself a child from a part of her soul. She succeeded.”_

 

oOoOo

 

Emma shifts the bulky package in her arms before knocking on the shop’s back door. Said door opens to the five year old face of the golden-haired Dora, whom Emma greets with a hello and a nose-tweaking before she invites herself in. 

 

Dora whines at the mistreatment of her nose, but she still follows the hero happily, staring up at her as she sets the package down on the floor and mumbling, “Dad’s changing Aspen’s diaper now because today is Mom’s turn to take care of the shop. He’ll be out in a minute, he says.”

 

“Ok, then, we’ll leave him to it.” Emma replies, relieved that she doesn’t have to deal with things like that. She sits on the couch to wait for her long-time friend to finish with business, and smiles when there’s suddenly a warm weight in her lap, courtesy of an adorable little kid. Peeking down at her, Emma asks, “So, whats it like having a little brother?”

 

“He’s looooouuuud,” Dora answers quietly after careful consideration, “and he smells. But he likes cuddles and he laughs when you poke him, so he’s not that bad…”

 

Emma ruffles Dora’s hair and laughs, “It sounds like you really like him. Are you going to be the best big sister ever?”

 

Dora just looks up at her and, with great conviction that no other five year old really has the right to, says, “Of course. He’s never going to be lonely, not as long as I’m around.”

 

“Thats good to hear,” Tomix answers from the doorway. Emma and Dora turn to face the red-head dad. He smiles at the pair, then after noticing the package in the corner, he gestures to it with his head (since his hands are full of baby) and asks, “What’s that for?”

 

“Oh,” Emma exclaims, “I almost forgot. I was in Dragsvard when I got your letter about the newest addition to the family, so I figured that one of their quilts would make a good welcoming present. Its pretty and functional, and soft enough for everyone to love!”

 

“I bet he’ll have to wrestle his mom for it, then, once he’s too big to share it.” Tomix smiles, though he seems somewhat bemused as to why Emma of all people would need to gift them with anything, considering all she’s done for them. “Thank you.”

 

Dora slides off of Emma’s lap and trots up to her father. She holds her arms up at him and says, “Daddy, I want to show Aspen off to Aunt Emma.”

 

Tomix grins. “Of course, sweet, thats why Auntie’s here,” he answers as he kneels down to hand the boy over, “Be careful, ok?”

 

“Duh, Dad, I don’t want to hurt him.” Adjusting the weight in her arms so that her brother is more comfortable nestled on her shoulder, Dora much more carefully makes her way back to the couch where Emma is watching the exchange in amusement. 

 

Climbing up onto the couch again, Dora, with her brother, sits by her aunt this time rather than on her like earlier. She sets Aspen on her lap and pokes him until he’s focusing on her finger. She points to Emma and says, “Aspen, this is Aunt Emma. She’s the Hero of Lore.”

 

Aspen, with a shock of black hair on his crown, stares up at Emma and babbles happily. His right eye is purple, the other is green. 

 

oOoOo

 

_“The child that the woman created was not like other people, though. Made from nothing more than a split soul, the child had no physical body. He was a spirit, different from all of the others in the village.”_

 

_“He must have been lonely like that.”_

 

_“And he was. He played with the other kids in the village, but found himself consumed by Envy. He wanted to be human, like the kids, or he wanted the other kids to be spirits, like him. The spirit child wanted this so much that he killed some of the kids, and he and his mother were forced to run away.”_

 

_“The poor mother… and the son…”_

 

_“Yeah. What they did was unforgivable, but they were lonely and didn’t know what else to do - didn’t have anyone to pull them on the right path. And, they were still lonely after they ran. The child was so lonely that he tried to make himself siblings the same way he was made, from his mother’s soul. He ended up killing her, after making six different spirits. He was later sealed into a set of Spirit-Looms with his created siblings.”_

 

oOoOo

 

Emma waits until both the kids have been put to bed with their mom before she confronts Tomix with the question that has been tugging at her brain.

 

Tomix, having expected the questions the minute that he saw his son had heterochromatic eyes, closes the bedroom door gently before gesturing for Emma to follow him out to the back porch. 

 

They make their way out to the warm night, the sky bright with stars and moonlight. It’s quiet and calm and cloudless out, which doesn’t really reflect Emma’s mood at all. She’s conflicted and worried and hoping that Tomix knows what he’s doing because if she’s right then this could be world-changing.

 

The red-headed Soul-Weaver waits patiently for Emma to comb out her thoughts. He knows why she’s worried, but he also knows more than anything that she’s forgiving and willing to trust him despite all the mistakes he has made. So, Tomix waits.

 

Eventually, Emma speaks, saying, “Dora has gold eyes,” while looking off to the garden in the backyard. 

 

Tomix nods in affirmation and waits for his friend to continue. She complies. “And Aspen has green and purple eyes… despite the fact that your eyes were originally blue and their mom’s eyes are grey.”

 

Yeah, he had noticed that, too. And maybe some people would have called something different, but both Tomix and Emma both know how trustworthy their mother is, and they’ve been through so many things that other people couldn’t imagine, events that have opened their minds to _possibilities_. And eyes aside, the kids definitely take after their parents in facial structure and mannerisms. So, there’s no infidelity involved. 

 

Rather… “When you,” Emma hesitates, “… disappeared, back in the Void Core, Pandora and Envy were both synchronized with you.”

 

“Yeah, they were both bound to my soul.” Tomix is staring at the sky, tracing with his gaze the glittering constellations that he missed in the years that he spent chasing down his mistakes.

 

Emma finally shifts her gaze from the trees in the distance to her friend. She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and finally asks-but-states, “Tomix, when you came back, you brought them back with you. When they came back, did they get reborn into your children? Because if its true, if Aspen and Dora are _Envy_ and _Pandora_ …”

 

“Mm,” Tomix hums, “It would be a huge thing. The villain who nearly engulfed Lore in the Void, and the founder of the Chaosweavers, reincarnated? People would be rioting at the door.” He sighs, deflates under the weight of what has been brought to light. Tomix is filled with hope and fear and knows that this is the moment where everything, for better or worse, _changes._ He has no choice to press on, to continue, “But… they’re my kids, and they could use a second chance. We all could, for all we don’t deserve it.”

 

The two friends sit in silence under the moonlight. The wind rustles in the leaves of the trees and runs cool fingers through their hair. Finally, Emma stands and stretches, exclaiming, “Well, I guess if you guys are all getting second chances, we might as well make the most of it.” She turns to face Tomix with a fiercely determined stare, then continues, “I’ll help you out however I can, so that they don’t have to repeat the mistakes they’ve made. So that all of you can live your lives knowing you’re not alone this time.”

 

Tomix lets out a breathless laugh, “Thank you, Emma. You’ve always been so kind - you’re such a blessing.” He stands up, now buoyant with the acceptance of his friend, and continues, “Do you have to go anywhere, or can you stay the night? We’ve already got the guest room set up, and the kids would be overjoyed to have you over tomorrow, too.”

 

Emma accepts, and can see gratitude and relief and joy in Tomix’s golden eyes.

 

oOoOo

 

“ _Many years passed, and the Weaver who trapped the corrupted spirits became the Headmaster of a Weaving academy. He had foolish students, and one of them was dared to weave a coat with his Spirit-Looms. The boy was prideful, so he took the challenge and succeeded, only to die when the trapped spirits escaped. He was revived by the envious spirit-child.”_

 

_“Daddy, did they become friends?”_

 

_“They did, in a way. But it wasn’t enough to stop the spirit. He lied to the boy when he bonded with him, and later ran to the Void. The boy, dedicated to hunting down the freed spirits, realized that his Soul-Ally was the final spirit he had to find. So, he found a new spirit to work with, the lonely woman.”_

 

_“What happened then, Dad?”_

 

_“The boy grew into a man and learned that his life was tied to the child's. So, if the man was going to stop him, he had to die. He still went in, believing he could stop the spirit by himself, and after synchronizing with the woman he tried to battle the spirit boy alone. That failed though, and the man was possessed by the spirit._

 

oOoOo

 

Tomix knows that the day will come. His kids, his precious, lovely, struggling kids will learn the truth of their identities, or else flounder and flail in the mistakes reborn from their past. Because, the truth might hurt, but without that light they will never see into the shadows that haunt them and never learn that the darkness can be beaten.

 

He asks Emma to help when that day comes, and they plan and observe and wait for the day when the kids will be ready for the truth, or for the day when the truth becomes a necessity.

 

On that day, Tomix will bring his kids out to the back porch with Emma and say, “Do you remember the story I told you, of Woe and Envy and Pride? I think it’s time you heard the ending.”

 

oOoOo

 

_“The man’s best friend and hero, who had come with him on the journey to the void, learned about the price, but respected his wishes and fought the possessed body. This allowed the man to take back control, with the spirit boy and the lonely woman still bound in his soul. To finish his quest, the man threw himself into the Void Core.”_

 

_“Is that the end? They all died, just like that?”_

 

_“Not so. They were reborn from the void, and in time got second chances.”_

 

_“How did they do that, Daddy?!”_

 

_“Thats a secret for another day.”_

 

oOoOo

 

_“Once, there was a beautiful and powerful woman who was not happy because she was the loneliest person in the world. She traveled the land and hurt people because she wanted other people to hurt in the same way she did, but it never made her feel better.”_

 

_“She met a man who saw past the beauty and the power and the danger she wore like a cloak, and saw instead the loneliness eating away at her. In turn, she saw the love and compassion in his heart and learned that from him. The two eventually married, and were happy for a time, though they couldn’t start a family.”_

 

_“He died, and the woman was heart-broken. She was so lonely that she became reckless, and tried to make herself a child from a part of her soul. She succeeded.”_

 

_“The child that the woman created was not like other people, though. Made from nothing more than a split soul, the child had no physical body. He was a spirit, different from all of the others in the village.”_

 

_“He played with the other kids in the village, but found himself consumed by Envy. He wanted to be human, like the kids, or he wanted the other kids to be spirits, like him. The spirit child wanted this so much that he killed some of the kids, and he and his mother were forced to run away.”_

 

_“They were still lonely, though. The boy was so lonely that he tried to make himself siblings the same way he was made, from his mother’s soul. He ended up killing her, after making six different spirits. He was later sealed into a set of Spirit-Looms with his siblings.”_

 

“ _Many years passed, and the Weaver who trapped the corrupted spirits became the Headmaster of a Weaving academy. He had foolish students, and one of them was dared to weave a coat with his Spirit-Looms. The boy was prideful, so he took the challenge and succeeded, only to die when the trapped spirits escaped. He was revived by the envious spirit-child.”_

 

_“He lied to the boy when he bonded with him, and later ran to the Void. The boy, dedicated to hunting down the freed spirits, realized that his Soul-Ally was the final spirit he had to find. So, he found a new spirit to work with, the lonely woman.”_

 

_“The boy grew into a man and learned that his life was tied to the child's. So, if the man was going to stop him, he had to die. He still went in, believing he could stop the spirit by himself, and after synchronizing with the woman, he tried to battle the spirit boy alone. That failed though, and the man was possessed by the spirit._

 

_“The man’s best friend and hero, who had come with him on the journey to the void, learned about the price, but respected his wishes and fought the possessed body. This allowed the man to take back control, with the spirit boy and the lonely woman still bound in his soul. To finish his quest, the man threw himself into the Void Core.”_

 

_“They were reborn from the void, and in time got second chances.”_

 

_“The man woke up fourteen years younger in the soulless body of his brother, who had passed on but left his body in stasis. Later, he had two kids. The firstborn, a girl with beautiful golden hair and powerful golden eyes, was the lonely woman, Pandora. The second, a boy with purple and green eyes, was the spirit child who called himself Aspar, then later Envy._


	6. Spider Silk Fragments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It takes a lot to break a spider's web - it takes more to break a relationship.

Riadne really loves Tomix, and she knows he feels the same way. This is part of the problem, which really says volumes about the state of their relationship. 

 

See, the problem is that Riadne is very much about action. As in, if her loved ones are facing danger, she’s very much going to be throwing herself into it to help out because she is _not_ losing anyone on her watch, especially if she can actually make a difference (and she can make one heck of a difference, because she’s actually pretty good at fighting and surviving and stuff).

 

Tomix has a different opinion, unfortunately. It’s an opinion that leads to Tomix saying dumb things like, “Riadne, stay back where its safe!” in many, many situations. 

 

She usually responds with charming words like, “Are you a moron? I’m not just leaving you to that mess!”

 

‘That mess’ tends to be a ridiculous number of various monsters and stabby-type things that swarm them on various quests to destroy corrupted elemental spirits. Because the spirits have a lot of minions. Who all know about Tomix’s quest. Because well, he’s Tomix.

 

It would probably sting a lot less if he said the same to _anyone else who joined them_. Seriously, between her, a powerful and skilled Arachnomancer, Izzac, who’s more frail than she is (though that admittedly isn’t saying much considering how awesome Riadne is), Char, who is a kid and only joins occasionally for experience or something, and Emma, who helped before she was frozen in a block of ice, Riadne is the only one who gets that line, and on a near daily basis, to boot. 

 

And the excuse that, “You’re the healer, it’ll be a lot worse if they take you out!” doesn’t help, because not only is it supremely useless to save the healer for later if everyone else is already dead or dying, but it also implies that he doesn’t trust her to actually take care of herself. Which she has proven empirically to the contrary, thank you very much. Its why he invited her into this mess in the first place, even if he’s apparently forgotten. (Also, does he listen when she argues that it would make her life easier if she had less healing to do? No, he doesn’t)

 

If she ever brings this up, people will probably assume she is jealous. And, they’d be right, until their falsely knowing glances slide over to the Hero of Lore. Because Riadne envies the trust that Emma shares with Tomix, the way they can communicate with the twitch of an eye, but she can’t envy a romantic relationship that won’t ever be there.

 

(If Riadne tries to cover Tomix’s back in a fight, he’ll try twice as hard to protect her, and get himself injured more in the process - if Emma does the same, they become a fighting force that can tear through swarms of monsters in an instant.)

 

It’s like bitter green poison, knowing that Tomix will always trust Emma more than he trusts her. Its worse knowing that Tomix isn’t even trying to hurt her - he’s trying to help in the only way he knows, and she loves him for this and resents him for this and wants to scream at him because of this. 

 

Tomix tries to keep Riadne wrapped in safety blankets without listening to her protests, and now she’s drowning in cotton when she should be flying on spider-silk wings. 

 

Their relationship is too dysfunctional - she can’t speak and he can’t listen and neither of them can back down because the drive to fight and the drive to protect are integral to their beings and giving that up would be giving up parts of their souls - and it breaks Riadne’s heart, but at this point their relationship is so tattered the only solution is to clear out the webs and lay a different one down.

 

Riadne cries. Tomix can’t. But, in the end, they’re still friends. 

 


	7. Panic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aspen is afraid everyone will hate him, Dora doesn't understand why she's so scared of what her brother could be, and Tomix hopes beyond hope that history won't repeat again.
> 
> But it's ok, because they're a family, and they're going to stick together.

Tomix’s world _shifts_ when he gets a message from the school one calm fall afternoon, mainly because it involves the panting messenger explaining how Aspen accidentally destroyed his classroom in a temper and how Dora accidentally got flung into a wall in the process. Also, at last notice, Aspen was initiating self-imposed incarceration by locking himself in a closet, and Dora was being carried to the nurses office because she couldn’t quite walk in a straight line.

 

He’s a _little_ bit alarmed. (Athene tells Emma later she could have sworn he developed instantaneous teleportive abilities, and she’s only halfway joking.)

 

When he arrives at the school - in a fraction of the time it took for the messenger to get to his house - Tomix forgoes all formalities, completely ignoring the teachers and various faculty in order to focus his senses on two cord-like threads coiled around his fingers.

 

He tracks the end of Dora’s autumn gold thread first, partially because she’s closer to him, partially because she’s not trying to hide like Aspen is, but mostly because she’s quite (unusually) loudly trying to force her way past the disgruntled nurse who is blocking her way, and is barely refraining from using magic to get what she wants. Her aura is shimmering on the verge of visibility around her, and her curly blonde hair starts to stir in its wake - if it wasn’t for Dora’s control and general wariness about her powers, the nurse would be a lot more injured than Dora herself and the school would probably have even more property damage to worry about. As it is, the potentially impending doom is alleviated when Dora abruptly settles and turns to see her dad racing down the hall.

 

The nurse relaxes in turn, perhaps unwisely as Dora takes this opportunity to duck around the unsuspecting aide. She barrels into her dad, who grunts at the sudden impact but obligingly wraps his arms around the shivering girl, rubbing circles into her back and murmuring calming nonsenses into her hair. She’s mumbling _something_ to him, but due to the fact that her face is currently pressed into Tomix’s shirt, he can’t quite hear what Dora’s saying - though to be fair, just by situation alone he can understand the gist of it.

 

It takes a few minutes, but Dora eventually stops shaking and Tomix pulls away from their hug, holding her at arms length by her shoulders. Even as he’s checking her over for injuries, he asks, “Are you ok, sweet? I heard you got thrown into a wall…”

 

Shaking her head, Dora answers, “I’m fine Dad, I was more shocked than anything. Besides, Aspen wasn’t trying to hurt me, I just got caught up in whatever he did.”

 

She hesitates, head ducked down, and worries at her lower lip. Though she’s answered his question, Tomix can tell that his daughter wants to say more, and may not be fine at all even if she’s ok physically. It’s understandable, considering that she’s just been accidentally attacked by her little brother, but Tomix is still concerned and would like her to speak sooner rather than later. What stops him from demanding answers, though, is the knowledge that Dora has always been reticent with her words, even back when she was Pandora and centuries old. So, instead of pushing her to talk, he waits - with a calm gaze and a reassuring squeeze to her shoulder.

 

oOoOo

 

Dora’s perfectly fine, really. She may be a little winded, but the nurse already checked her over for injury, and admitted that she was pretty much in the clear - which is no surprise, because Mom, Dad, and Aunt Emma all insist on training her and Aspen when they have the chance. So, she does have some reflexes to deal with an impromptu flight. Kind of. Ok, so she doesn’t have that much training and her state of non-injury owes more to the fact that she managed to cushion herself instinctively with her power, but still. She’s just a little tired, which is expected from any unexpected surge of mana usage.

 

She’s not nearly tired enough to need to stay in the office - not when she needs to get to her little brother. So, she disagrees when the nurse says otherwise. Loudly, uncharacteristically insistently, and while trying to shove her way past the outstretched arm that’s blocking her way.

 

Because, she’s (probably) fine, but Aspen _isn’t_ , and she needs to get to him before things go Doomwood south, rather than just plain south. It doesn’t matter that she feels irrationally betrayed at his unintentional attack, when his magic _surged_ and she got caught in the crossfire, because he’s her beloved younger brother, and it’s more important that he knows he’s not alone than it is for her to indulge in her bitterness. After all, if Aspen doesn’t know that he’s loved, regardless of what he's done… he’ll snap, and she’ll lose him all over again.

 

…again? Dora’s only fifteen, and Aspen’s only ten - when did she ever lose him, why does the thought of him breaking fill her with such looming _dread_? She can’t think of a reason for it - her family, while not perfect, has been nothing but close for as long as she can remember. Dad, especially, does his level best to ensure that they all have time to spend together as a family. They’ve played pranks on Aunt Emma (who Dad insists has the most _hilarious_ reactions, even if she does exact revenge), they’ve gone of field trips to Lore’s most beautiful and secret sites, they’ve even had lead-weighted discussions on the precautions to take with their unusual powers - all as a family, all knowing that no matter what, Dora and Aspen would never be unloved, or unlovable.

 

Aspen loves their family as much as she does, she _knows_ from moonlit conversations when they still shared a room, so why can she imagine her precious Aspen consumed by loneliness and despair until nothing but bitterness and _envy_ remains? Why is it that being accidentally attacked at his hand chills Dora to her very core, until she feels fractured and torn and like she might very well die from the pain?

 

It’s so strange, this baseless anxiety that feels as true as the sun shining bright, that Dora pauses - breath fluttering in panic and vision going dark. In the moment that her focus lapses, she sees movement out of the corner of her eye - a flash of red hair and brown coat that are edged in warm purple to her mind’s eye.

 

She turns to the familiar comfort of her father and abruptly sighs, feeling tension slip from her shoulders and relief soften her breath.

 

There’s an opportunity to escape, and she takes it to race towards Dad. To throw her arms around his waist, and to feel him wrap her up in love and safety.

 

In between breaths made heavy by his sprint, he whispers that _it’ll be alright_ , that _you’re alright_ and _don’t worry, I’m right here, I’m right here_. His heartbeat thrums against her ear, and it rings steadily clear. Just by being here, Dad anchors her in this moment, where everything’s fine and Aspen isn’t lost and they can be happy because everything will be all right because he’s here and that means she’s safe now.

 

When he asks if she’s alright, her affirmation is true. Except…

 

There’s still that dread, cloying and sour, rising in her throat now that the sheer relief of seeing her dad has passed. She loves her little brother so much, but… he’s scary. He _can_ be scary, and evil, and bitter, and horrible and she knows this with a certainty that goes beyond plain fear. She’s certain that her awkward, sweet Aspen could well become a monster, and yet that fear has to be far too outlandish, far too impossible to share.

 

Dad is leaning closer to her, with his hands still comfortingly solid on her shoulders. Though his gold eyes are steady as can be, Dora can feel the tension in her dad’s hands and knows that it’s taking all of his self control to not demand to know what’s wrong - because in the end, he is the type of dad to jump into action, who runs as fast as he can when he learns of incidents at school and bonds with his kids by teaching them Soul-Weaving other mana-based basics, loving but so hasty that he’s run straight into monster swarms more than once for lack of waiting. He’s so many things, but patient is not one of them.

 

Knowing this - that her Dad is (impossibly) waiting silently, solely for her - helps Dora to find her voice, helps her to take a deep breath and ask, “Dad, is Aspen going to be alright?”

 

(She pushes back her fear of what could be, and what she feels irrationally must have been, so that she can ask what she needs to know now, _can you answer me, so that I can believe in you instead of my own fears?_ )

 

oOoOo

 

Dora speaks, and for a moment Tomix doesn’t know how to respond. Is Aspen going to be alright?

 

Truth be told, he has no idea - because he knows that Aspen is an awkwardly adorable child who loves his family yet sometimes feels lonely beyond measure, but Aspen is also Envy - bitter and ruthless, who would have destroyed the whole world out of his selfishness and who has murdered scores of humans. The soul of this boy is his dorky little temperamental son, and it’s a son who killed his own mother without even acknowledging it to the end. He could be alright… or he could repeat history once again. And certainty has destroyed everything once before ( _this is Aspar…he is my closest friend, my SoulAlly. Without him, I would be lost. Nothing…_ ).

 

Tomix almost says that _everything will be fine, Aspen will be perfectly fine_ , but in the end he can’t quite believe that himself. It’s what he wishes for and hopes for, to be sure, but as to what will happen?

 

“I don’t know, sweet,” he answers instead, with nothing but honesty and hope to his claim, “but if I have anything to say about it, he will be.”

 

It’s not enough. His daughter is looking to him for hope and reassurance, and yet he’s so powerless that this is all he can offer. Tomix hates that he can’t give her the world and eternal sunshine, he can’t give her the certainty that everything would be alright that he _wishes_ he had, and so he bows his head instead.

 

Yet, Dora releases a heavy sigh and takes in a lighter breath. She hugs him once again, briefly, and murmurs, “Ok, Dad. We’ll do whatever we can for him, right?”

 

Tomix looks up, gold meeting gold, and sees strength in his daughter’s gaze. He can give nothing but his best, and she will find the strength to do the same. That’s the hope that she finds in him, the faith that she has in her father and protector, the love she has for her brother.

 

He nods, and grins. “Now, let’s go find your brother.”

 

oOoOo

 

When Aspen blinks away the green-and-blue sparks, he sees destruction. Windows fractured in their frames with sharp glimmers of glass falling from webbed cracks, tables scattered and overturned, floor made slippery with white paper, door cracked and hanging pathetically by only its bottom hinge, and faint burns like whips scattered throughout the mess. He feels mirth bubbling up sharp in his throat, the bitter satisfaction that, if he and Dora can’t belong, then at least now everyone knows that they’re not to be messed with (that maybe now, they’ll see that it’s worth it to be his friend).

 

The laughter dies in his mouth when he sees his sister, collapsed at the join of the floor and the wall. She's clammy-pale under her dark skin, and though her face is partially hidden by the fan of her curly blonde hair, pain is still evident in her labored breathing and in her hunched up posture. Sparks of mana fizz off of her as she struggles to rise, wincing and unable to do much more than lift her head.

 

Apsen pales. Reaches out with Dora’s name on his lips, then flinches back with wide, horrified eyes. One step back, then two, and he stumbles his way into fleeing blindly. Ignoring the fact that he’s nearly shoved the teacher to the floor in his haste, he sprints out of the destroyed classroom, into the hallway crowded with his panicked classmates and down the corridor, with only the need to get _away_ in his mind.

 

He runs, runs until he sees an open closet and hurtles towards it without a thought.

 

It’s dark and cramped once he locks the door, and it’s still not enough. Aspen clamps his hands over his ears and screws his eyes shut, tries to block out the sliver of light that’s intruding and the clamoring outside and the memory of what’s just happened, because… because if it’s true, if that’s what really happened, then everything is ruined.

 

He loves Dora, truly. She’s kind and sweet and gives him the best hugs when he’s upset about the bullying, and he hugs her when she’s upset about the same. She swaps out her meat and vegetables for his too-sweet fruits and desserts when their parents aren’t looking, and they stay up past their bedtime to talk by the light of the moon whenever the mood strikes them. She is Aspen’s sister, and his best friend, and now she’s going to hate him, her and Daddy and Mommy and everyone, because they’re all heroes and its their job to beat up the people who hurt others.

 

He doesn’t want to be hated.

 

oOoOo

 

"Dora, can you see Aspen's soul threads? Can you trace where they're leading?"

 

"Kind of... they're really hard to see right now. Is something wrong?"

 

"Aspen's hiding now. He's scared, but we're going to find him, right?"

 

"Right."

 

oOoOo

 

Green is bleeding into the blue of his aura now. He’s always been like that, deep blue laced with green and purple by his mood, and it’s just one more thing that alienates him from his classmates. Sometimes he hates the green that seeps into his aura, the green that’s reflected in his left eye (and that’s one more thing that isolates him, because no one else he knows has two-colored eyes), and now it’s in the blue threads trailing towards the purple and gold that connect him to Daddy and to Dora.

 

He wants to reach for them, because they’re comfort, and he doesn’t, because once they reach him they’ll hate him, so he clamps down on his aura, squishes it as much as he can so that everything will be ok for a little bit longer, because there’s nothing in the world that could be scarier than having them hate him.

 

Aspen blocks out the world at hand, so long and so well that he doesn’t know that his daddy and Dora have found him until he feels a knock on the door he’s leaning against, catches the soft, clear voice of Dad asking, “Aspen? Will you talk to us?”

 

By reflex, he takes in a sharp breath. He holds it anxiously without knowing whether or not he wants to hear that voice again, without knowing what he’s waiting for. In suffocating silence he sits, until he hears a different voice. This time, it’s his sister instead of his dad, saying, “Spen, I want to talk to you, can I come in?”

 

Aspen blurts out, “NO!” in a panic, before he flinches and claps both hands over his mouth. In a quieter voice, he mutters, “Go ‘way.”

 

There’s another pause, and Aspen thinks (fears) that they might have actually listened, when Dora speaks again, asking, “Why? Please, just tell us what’s wrong.”

 

The voice on the other side of the door is so, so sweet. It’s warm, and it’s love, and it’s simply _there_ , and Aspen wants so much to listen to his sister’s voice.

 

So, he does. He manages to say, “I don’t want you to hate me…” before he’s suddenly choking on tears, rubbing furiously at his eyes because he hates being weak enough to cry over something like this.

 

Aspen tries to speak again - to prove that he can control his tears - but can’t find the words, and is reduced to mumbling through desperate gasps, “I’m sorry, please don’t hate me,” and “I didn’t mean to hurt you,” while curling up into a little ball and pressing his wet face to his knees.

 

Silence answers him, and Aspen wonders for a moment if they’ve finally left. He’s proven wrong soon enough, as there’s a jiggling, metallic noise above his head, then a click as the door opens and he’s wrapped up in a warm hug. Another pair of arms join, and Aspen looks up to see Dora at his right, and Daddy at his left. Awkwardly, Aspen extracts his arms from where they are still circling his knees, and he slowly sits up so that he can return the embrace. Dora is murmuring about how _you’re going to be fine_ and _I'm fine_ and  _we love you_ , and Daddy is ruffling his hair and saying _its ok to let all your tears out_ , and ever so slowly, Aspen blinks away blurry vision and saltwater.

 

His eyes are still red and his nose is still stuffed, but eventually Aspen gets up with his family.

 

Daddy lifts him up in his strong arms, and Dora hands him a handkerchief for his damp face. Aspen links his arms around his dad’s neck and keeps Dora (who has a hand twisted into the fabric of Dad’s coat) in his sight, and they finally make their way home - together.


End file.
